Job shadowing enables individuals from the British Council to experience first-hand the working day and operating environment of colleagues at Education UK Partnership member institutions. We believe this will help broaden our understanding of the Partnership membership and make us more able to respond to its individual needs.

This new initiative has been developed as part of our wider remit to improve the levels of customer service Partnership members receive and to hone the Partnership services to better reflect members' needs.

The initiative includes all sectors – HE, FE and independent schools – and both large, established institutions, as well as smaller institutions with less experience of the international education market.

We are ensuring that, wherever possible, we complement the needs of the individual with the specifications of the institution in order for both to gain maximum benefit from the visit and to meet the following objectives:

			understand customer needs;
			gain an insight into the working style of the institution and the impact of our delivery;
			build stronger relationships with institutions;
			identify more effective use of Partnership services;
			create a network of institutions and individuals to undertake further work;
			provide professional development.

All attachments will link with a colleague who works on international recruitment within an institution.

In the longer term, we at the British Council are hoping to offer the same opportunity to institutions.

We are delighted to have received support from all sectors of the Partnership representing a broad range of institutions.

Eight successful visits have now taken place:

			HE:		Bath Spa University University of Derby The University of Manchester The University of Nottingham The University of York University of Bedfordshire
			FE:		Hartpury College
			Independent boarding schools:		The Mount School

Bath Spa University were first to host the scheme. Bryony Blinman, Head of International Recruitment, explains how she and her office benefited from hosting Sarah Steele, Events and Exhibitions Manager:

'Thank you for organising this. I greatly enjoyed having Sarah around for the two days and it was useful to spend time with her talking about how we do things. It did give me the opportunity to review what we are doing in the areas we discussed. There were some things I learnt as well; Sarah was able to give me an insight into how the British Council side of things works. I had picked topics to discuss which were of direct relevance to her job and to our dealings with the British Council. We talked candidly about both positives and negatives and I think having a contact in the British Council who I know on this level will also be of use in the future.'

Sarah felt she was able to take some useful learning points from the experience:

'This visit was a highly useful experience, giving me a much greater insight into the needs of our customers. It also developed my understanding of the impact market changes and the development of our services can have on individual institutions.'

Further attachments will take place in Spring 2008.

We will announce when we are accepting further expressions of interest to participate in this initiative. In the meantime, if you have any queries, please contact the Education UK Partnership helpdesk.